Haiti - British warship arrives in Cap-Haitien, 21-Gun salute creates panic in the city

November 25, 2014 6:34 AM

Residents of Cap Haitien were in shock Sunday... A warship from the United Kingdom's Royal Navy, the HMS Iron Duke, arrived at the port of Cap Haitien in 23 November and some Haiti news media reported panic in the city after the warship fired a 21-gun salute as a military honor...

Le Nouvelliste writes: "some people thought it was the end of the world" according to witnesses...

Many of the citizen of the city of Cap-Haitien were not aware of the this visit from The Royal Navy frigate (warship) HMS Iron Duke; however, the Haiti Ministry of Defense was certainly aware. in fact they twitted about it.

Ministère Défense HT (@MDefenseHaiti) tweets:

"Royal Navy warship #HMSIronDuke to arrive in #Haiti today, on return from a 6-month deployment of the South Atlantic." (November 23, 2014)

The British Government, via the British Embassy in Port-au-Prince, released an article] on 21 Nov that, in in fact, the Royal Navy warship HMS Iron Duke was to arrive in Haiti on 23 November while on her return from a six-month deployment of the South Atlantic as part of "Promoting strong relations between the UK and The Republic of Haiti"

In the article, the British Govt said:

"It has been a long time since a Royal Navy Warship last visited Haiti and we will be firing a 21 gun salute when we arrive to mark the occasion."

I guess the people in Cap-Haitien didn't get the memo because the media made it look like it was a total surprise.